Overlord Gothic 1
by gothicjedi666
Summary: A redoing of my Overlord Gothic story. This version will be more true to the setting and cover both games.
1. Chapter 1

**Author Note. **

Right so I am rewriting Overlord Gothic. I won't get rid of the old story but it will be considered to be the old version and no longer part of the story of all the Gothics. I plan to do both games eventually, but that might take a while as I'm playing a lot on Xbox Live these days so I'm just as motivated to write as I use to be.

**Overlord Gothic I. Part One. **

**The Dark Tower. Lower Levels. **

Cold and darkness surrounded me as I awoke in an unfamiliar place. This certainly wasn't my bedroom and I wasn't currently lying on my bed. Instead I was sealed inside something, or at least that was how it seemed.

Moving my arms I pushed up and tried to free myself, but it was no use my strength alone wasn't going to move the obstruction which blocked my way to freedom.

Deciding that the best thing I could do was to call for help I took a breath and called out.

"Is anyone there, I seem to be stuck. Could you help me".

Oddly I didn't feel like panicking even though part of me thought that I should be scared about being buried (or at least sealed) alive like this but some reason I wasn't panicking. Even more oddly I felt rather well, as if I'd just had the best night's sleep of my life.

Any more musing I might have had about predicament vanished as I heard a voice.

"Masta?".

I didn't know who had said that, due to how muffled things sounded from inside this tomb, but at least the voice didn't seem to be threatening if anything it sounded more curious than dangerous. After a few moments of thought I wondered if the owner of the voice might have been asking me a question so I decided to give it an answer in the hopes that whoever it was that had just spoken would help me. And they likely would as if this was the person or one of the people who had put in this predicament, then they wouldn't of called me Master. Why the person had called me master was a question that could be answered once I was free.

"Yeah sure this is Master now get me out" I requested in a tone of voice that hopefully didn't sound too desperate.

I really didn't want to embarrasses myself further, but then again how prideful could a man trapped in a stone coffin afford to be?

Soon I could feel someone or perhaps something making an effort to free me so wisely I helped as best I could but still the stone slab keeping me imprisoned didn't budge. It was simply too heavy to be moved even with two people trying.

"Should I go get help!" the voice said.

I wasn't sure of that was a question or a statement but I answered anyway.

"Yes, go get help!".

Nothing happened for a while so I took the time to examine the pockets of my jeans. My hopes were raised and quickly dashed again when I found my mobile phone but it had a flat battery, so that was no help. Cursing I felt around more and found a packet of cigarettes. I even found a silver lighter which meant I could have a smoke if I ever got the hell out of this stone coffin thing.

Despite everything I was feeling rather relaxed. In fact I felt pretty good actually and I was sure that I should have been scared but I wasn't. In fact I should have been terrified by this whole experience. I had no idea why my current predicament didn't bother me, and I no desire to find out.

Then I heard a new voice this was more articulate. "A new Overlord you say.. hmm let's have a look at him".

I heard and felt the slab above me move, then the grunts of lots of things as they pushed the stone lid of what could have been my tomb off which freed me from my imprisonment. What little light there was blinded me as my eyes had gotten use to the darkness so it took me a while to get use to the light and when I did I saw the faces of my rescuers.

They weren't human.

"Rub some acid in his eyes that'll freshen him up" said one of the creatures.

Before I could protest this course of action one of the things bent over me a rubbed the contents of a jar right into my eyes.

The 'acid' hurt like hell for a few seconds but the pained faded fast, far faster than it should have, and when I opened my eyes again I could see clearly which was really odd as I wasn't wearing my glasses. Whatever that 'acid' was it had not only freshened me up it had also fixed my eyesight, and while it had really hurt it was a lot less hassle than laser eye surgery would have been.

Sitting up I took a look around and saw that there were a few of the ugly , half sized brown creatures standing around the stone coffin I had been trapped in. As I climbed out they backed away as if they were afraid of me. This was a new experience for me but for some reason it felt rather good to have these little monsters cowering before me.

"Good to see you up and about Sire" said one of the little brown monsters.

This creature seemed more human somehow, its voice was more cultured and more polite, which greatly pleased me but it wasn't human at all it only sounded like a person.

"I am Gnarl the Minion Master...".

"And devoted servant of darkness" I said finishing Gnarl's introduction for him as memories of a certain computer game came rushing to the front of my mind.

"Do you know me lord?" asked the Minion Master.

"Yeah your a...".

Well he was a video game character but if he was here what did that mean to me. Was I in the video game too? But how could I be in a video game? Was this just a vivid dream perhaps?

I pinched myself just to be sure but nothing happened, aside from a little pain. So not a dream then, maybe I was just crazy. That idea made more sense but if true did it really make any difference. Everything seemed real enough the acid had hurt, had really hurt in fact, but illusions of the mind couldn't hurt me. Could they?

After thinking about it I decided that it didn't matter. If I was crazy then I would either recover or not and if this was real I had to accept it. Overall I thought it best to play along for now if I found any evidence that this wasn't real then I would act on it, not that I had idea what such evidence would look like as it wasn't as if I'd ever been trapped inside my own mind before.

"A what Sire?" asked Gnarl bringing me out of thoughts.

"Your a Brown Minion" I said giving him a simple answer.

"Yes Master I am indeed a minion. Since you seem to already know about the minions we can move on and get you equipped".

By equipped Gnarl meant that I should start wearing a very scary, but also a very heavy looking suit of armour.

"Doesn't it take years to learn how to fight in armour?" I asked but my question wasn't loud enough to be heard over the noise of the excited minions running about and shouting about the new Overlord.

The few minions present quickly got me outfitted in the set of very intimating armour that while heavy was also surprisingly easy to move about in. I had thought that I might need months of training to use armour like this but it turns out that magic armour does most of the work for you. Seemed like a bit of cheat to me but I wasn't going to complain. After all I didn't really feel like spending the next few moths or perhaps years learning how to move about while wearing armour.

"Now Sire get use to moving about while we fetch you a weapon".

"Bring me that Flame Sword if you have it" I ordered remembering how cool that weapon looked.

I walked around a little and quickly got used to the armour. I felt far less vulnerable now I was protected by layers of magical metal and after picking up a rock and squeezing it I found out that I was far stronger in it too. I couldn't crush the stone into power but I was able to break into smaller pieces. I knew that humans were far easier to break than that rock so I should be able to fight like this.

A couple of Minions came in carrying a cruel looking, but not magical looking axe, it certainly proved to be magical as it was far too easy to lift and after testing it proved to be able to destroy piles of stone easily enough, but it didn't glow or anything.

I then noticed that the minions were starring at me it what could be called awe and Gnarl confirmed this by saying.

"You do cut a very imposing figure Master, you will have the peasants quaking their boots and staining their trousers in no time".

Ego stroking flattery and trouser staining aside, I did have to admit that I was quite scary looking. My reflection in a nearby pool certainly gave me that impression and I could imagine that the locals would share this belief before running away screaming in fear.

From deep down inside me an insane evil laugh built up and soon escaped my mouth.

"Ah, Master, evil truly suits you!" Gnarl said with a grin, "Let us go forth! There are nefarious deeds to be done!"

**The Dark Tower. Lower Levels. **

As it turned out the Minions weren't quite willing to throw me into the deep end in order to see if I could swim. Before I could go out to 'BURN, MAIM, KILL' as some of the Browns put it, they wanted to make sure that I could at least swing my axe around with hacking off one of my limbs.

This involved trying to kill the annoying Jester, a minion who was quick on his clawed feet, by swinging my axe around as if I was playing a game of Whack-A-Mole.

Apparently being the Overlord came with more a few physical upgrades, and the armour I wore was meant to further enhance those upgrades, so for a while I stumbled about trying to learn how to walk again and now to lose my balance when swinging an axe around.

Thankfully the upgrade the Overlord gets is a bit like being a Vampire Slayer, so it didn't take much in the way of training before I could fight with a reasonable chance of actually killing someone whom I wanted to die.

It would have been far better to either train with someone at least human sized, or to at least be able to kill a few minions but I didn't have many minions so my only option was on the job training.

Down here, in what I guessed to be basement, time didn't seem to mean much, but eventually I got fed up with trying to kill the small clown and decided to head up to the top of the Dark Tower were Gnarl was waiting for me.

"Nah, nah you can't hit me" mocked the jester as I turned around intending to leave.

He was so wrong about that. With an animal like roar I swung the axe one last time and cut the annoying jester minion in half right down the middle. The blood, or rather the gunk which minions had in place of blood, sprayed everywhere and I experienced what it was like to take a life.

**The Dark Tower. Throne Room.**

Looking out over what I guessed was my throne room, I watched as what

remained of the minions got started on cleaning the place up. Judging by the amount of damage I could see they and the neglect the Dark Tower had suffered they were going to be at for a while. There were holes in the roof, puddles had formed due to the rain getting in, there were even weeds sprouting up all over the place.

Gnarl couldn't of failed to miss my expression of displeasure upon seeing the place, but that was mostly because I'd taken my helmet off.

"Ah yes, your throne room has seen better days, but alas, one can't be a bastion of evil without heroes lining up to prove themselves."

Yes heroes were always bothering hard working Dark Lords, and since that included me now I was doubly against the idea.

"That last lot were particularly bothersome, killing your predecessor like that!" moaned Gnarl as he led about the throne room.

Well I'd played the first Overlord game so I had a good idea on what to do.

"The tower is in shambles but it's merely a setback for the Forces of Darkness, Sire. With you on the throne the work can begin and we can start to establish your Dark Domain!"

Either this was all an illusion of the mind catering to my deepest desires or someone had been very kind to me as I really felt suited to this role. I couldn't wait to start my career as a conquering warlord hell-bent on subjecting an entire world. It was certainly a refreshing change from working in the service industry.

"These are the spell stones Dark One" informed Gnarl while pointing to a a large stone statue that was propped up against the wall "you only have the fireball spell at the moment, but there are many more spell stones out there just waiting to be recovered".

Looking around I spotted a minion who was busy picking something out of its fur. With an evil smile on my face I lifted the gauntlet with the glowing crystal in it and attempted the spell.

The spell seemed to be thought triggered, or otherwise controlled with my mind, as a weak fireball shot out of the palm of my hand and hit the minion right in the backside.

"Good, shot, Master" complemented Gnarl with glee "the spell becomes more powerful as the Overlord does and can further enhanced by collecting mana totems I'm sure you'll be burning people to a crisp in no time".

The mention of crisps made me feel hungry, but I didn't think they that they would have any bags of Ready Salted lying around.

"This is the Tower Portal, Sire" said the Minion Master as he finished the tour "Sadly, it's missing its power source, the Tower Heart. However, there's still a tiny bit of energy left. It's just enough to transport you to the last known location of the Heart".

I remembered this well enough. The Tower Heart could transport the Overlord to different parts of this world. I had no idea how that worked but I knew that without the Tower Heart I was pretty much stuck in this tower.

"Where can it go once it is fully charged?" I inquired.

It didn't take long for the old minion to answer.

"Anywhere you wanted to go, Sire. Well as long as you know where it is you want to go".

"What if I wanted to go to another world?" I asked thinking how much better a home the Dark Tower would be if I could fill it with this from my world.

"That would require the Tower Heart, Master" explained the devoted servant of darkness "and would drain its energies, but if you found the Evil Presence Spell

"When your ready, just step though the Gate. I shall meet you on the other side".

Not seeing any reason to delay I stepped into the pool of water and suddenly found myself somewhere far away.

**The Mellow Hills. Tower Gate.**

Appearing with a flash, I was now at the Tower Gate in Mellow Hills. I hadn't felt anything odd when travelling here but I was pretty sure I'd just been sucked through a tunnel or some such because upon arrival and let out a big breathe. Not that it was noticeable thanks to the armour I wore.

I found Gnarl looking out into the lush, green countryside and even though he wasn't remotely human I could see the revulsion he felt on his face.

"This tranquil wilderness... so rural and idyllic," the Minion Master grumbled "Hideous is it not? Try not to inhale it my Lord!"

Personal I quite liked it, sure it was a bit to bright and cheery but if the colours were toned down a bit it would look just like the English countryside I used to visit with my family when I was a child.

At that point I expected to feel a little homesick or at least somewhat sentimental, but it didn't happen and I decided not to worry about it.

Gnarl urged me to step off the gate, and I did so that he could show me whatever it was he was so eager for me to see.

"Here are the minion gates, Sire. Currently you can only summon Browns. You must find the other lost minion tribes before you can summon them."

Damn, I'd forgotten about the missing hives. I could remember where the Reds were but the location of the others escaped my mind.

Ah well I was sure to find them sooner or later.

"Start by summoning a few Browns" suggested my evil minion adviser on all matters evil and involving minions.

Quickly having figured out that my will was what controlled everything the Overlord could control, I brought forth three Browns.

"Browns are toughest of all the Minions. They're never ones to shy away from a fight" remarked the aged minion "In fact it's quite difficult to get them to stop! Such is their dedication to the fight that Browns can also use many different objects as weapons, but in my experience it's best to get them to use actual weapons. It tends to save on embarrassment".

A bit of sound, if a little obvious, piece of advice.

"Perhaps we may recover some of our looted Tower Objects in this... lush, verdant abomination" mumbled Gnarl as he attempted to excuse himself.

After being assured by me that I could handle things the very old minion returned to the Dark Tower and I began to wonder if he suffered from Hay Fever or something because he really didn't like the Mellow Hills.

Before I'd even gotten to the first field I could hear Gnarl's voice again thanks to the helmet I was wearing. I didn't like wearing the helmet as it somewhat limited my field of vision. But on the plus side it did give me that cool glowing eye effect and more importantly it protected my head.

"Sire we need Life force in order to summon more minions" reminded the Minion Master "we are rather limited back at the tower and with more we could really speed up the rebuilding of your Dark Tower".

So slaughter some sheep then. I could handle that. Sheep were easy to kill compared to those fluffy seals in Overlord II.

"These fluffy creatures barely know they're alive, but you can still harvest Life force from them."

As I got closer I noticed how many of the sheep were in fact cute, fluffy little lambs. This made he hesitate, but not for as long as the seals would and I sent the minions charging forward.

What had been a peaceful field full of harmless animals and flowers quickly become a battlefield, and a very one sided battle it was.

I'd already killed the jester minion but seeing the sheep torn apart made me feel a bit ill, but I reminded myself that I needed the life force and that I needed to eat.

Then one of the minions ran up to me holding a yellow/brownish orb that had appeared when the livestock had been massacred.

"For you!" said the creature just before the yellow/brownish was absorbed into the crystal on my gauntlet.

The process was repeated many times until all the sheep were dead and the ground was soaked in blood. Rather than make me feel ill the sight of so much meat going to waste made me remember that I was going to need to eat soon.

"Gnarl if I send some of these sheep back could someone cook them for me?"

In my mind letting all these lamb chops rot would be a worse crime than killing the animals.

"Not without the Reds, Sire" replied Gnarl "or at least not without a few slaves in the kitchens, preferably of the female kind. Until then we can at least stock the larders".

I had to agree with Gnarl on that matter. Hopefully they would also be young, sexy females.

Gnarl spoke again snapping me out of my thoughts about lusty wenches.

"Now that you have enough life force, my lord you can summon more minions and clear the path ahead".

Oh right yes, there was more killing to do.

Being the Overlord I got the job of supervising as the minions as they dragged the more intact animal carcases back to the Tower Gate. Hopefully the Tower had the means to store the meat otherwise it would spoil. Still I wasn't too worried about food, as I remembered right the Halflings would having a party and as I planned to attend said party I would at least be assured something to eat.

When it came to clearing the path that led to the village of Spree I had to wonder why I couldn't of just helped to clear the path myself, as it wouldn't of required going back to the Tower Gate in order to summon more minions. Perhaps the little demons didn't like the idea of their Overlord doing the grunt work.

After clearing another field of 'sheepies' in the most destructive manner possible without using grenades I led my group to the Pumpkin Farm where I found the farmer tied to a post like he was some sort of living scarecrow.

"Halflings took over my farm. Tied me up in the sun to scare the birds! Now, those pumpkins are plotting against poor Bob." said the farmer in a very loony tone of voice.

Given that all this could still my delusion I decided not to judge the basket case and simply moved on.

The minions were soon crashing through the door of the farmer's home but in my armour I couldn't fit through the door so all I could do was listen as the minions slew the halflings, who had been ransacking the house, for some reason they set the small house on fire before returning to me with some more life force and returing to me my silver lighter.

Leaving the now burning farmhouse behind, while wondering how the minions had gotten their grubby little mitts on my lighter, I led the minions, who now had a fresh layer of blood and guts all over them, to where I hoped the Tower Heart would be. I had no intention of returning to the Dark Tower without it no matter how hungry or tired I got.

Along the way I encountered more Halflings and this bunch seemed to warriors judging by the fact they looked to be wearing armour and had swords. They were even waiting in ambush by badly hiding in tall, and importantly very dry, grass.

One fireball spell later and it became hot burning grass, although sadly not the type of grass which produced smoke I could of inhaled to get high, and I watched as the Halflings ran around while screaming.

Clearly the idea of Stop, Drop and Roll hadn't made it to this world yet.

Once the Hobbits, I mean Halflings, were dead the minions ran ahead to collect the swordsmen's weapons and the left behind life force.

"Oh how I miss the smell of roasting Halflings" commented Gnarl over the connection to my helmet "it takes me back to my youth".

I couldn't help but reply to that statement.

"You must have had an interesting life in your younger days"

"Yes, Master" replied the servant of darkness "oh the stories I could tell you, the gnome stomps, pulling the wings off faeries, ransacking that orphanage after we let the exploding teddy bears do their work".

Gnarl kept rambling on the way old people do when telling war stories so I tuned him out and got on with the task at hand.

After dealing with some more Halfings, whose deaths ensured all five of my minions now had a good weapon, I finally located the Tower Heart.

"Sire, the Tower Heart, over there in that pumpkin patch... Little fools, they must've used it to grow pumpkins, they have no idea of the real power it contains".

I had vague memory from one of the Harry Potter books. Hadn't the gamekeeper Hagrid used a magical item to grow super sized pumpkins? If magic could aid in the growing of crops this was something to remember if I ever got around to setting up farms. Not that I would use the Tower Heart for such menial things but there might be a way to replicate the effort the Heart was having on the pumpkins.

Once the overgrown orange plants were cleared away, or otherwise worn as impractical armour by the minions, I got my first proper look (outside of the video game) of the Tower Heart. It was a big blue sphere which radiated magic like the Springfield Nuclear Power Planet radiated actual radiation. I could actually feel the magic pouring it out of the sphere, it tickled a bit.

"Ohhhh pretty" said one the minions who summed up the whole thing rather nicely I thought.

"Okay evil demon things or whatever you are!" I shouted to the group "let's grab this thing and go home. Then we can come back and kill some more halflings".

That idea was received with thunderous approval, some of which was my own.


	2. Chapter 2

**Overlord Gothic I**

**Part Two. **

**The Dark Tower. Throne Room.**

With yet another cool light show I appeared back in the room a few seconds after the Tower Heart had been put back in its rightful place.

My return was met with much rejoicing by the minions who seemed to be extremely happy to have the Tower Heart back in its rightful. Bringing the magical object here also seemed to be

I was somewhat overjoyed myself as the Heart was the key to my being able to get back home, but that joy faded as I realised that I really didn't want to go back to Earth. There was nothing there for me to go back to, well nothing as worthwhile as what I could find here. Sure it might be kinda of nice to be able to get a cup of tea but the things I missed could be found on other worlds. And those worlds were a lot more interesting that mine.

That left me to decide what world I would like to make a Gate too. I was really spoilt for choice as I could clearly picture locations on many worlds that I would like to visit.

To help limit it down I discussed my options with Gnarl who explained that since I wasn't a natural magic user, apparently it was the spell stone and its link to the crystal in my gauntlet that did all the work, I wouldn't benefit from go anywhere like say to the Wizarding World as I wouldn't be able to make use a wand or as he phrased it 'your not a Wizard, Master'.

Also since the minions could, once the forge was up and running, create me many magical weapons crafted to fit my desires there wasn't any point me going to say Skyrim or Fable and claiming any of those land's cool magical weapons either.

And without the Evil Presence Spell I couldn't dominate the minds of others, so there was no point in me venturing to other worlds in order acquire babes either. That was the most disappointing thing of all.

In any case what I needed most right now was more minions, and since life force was easy to harvest here there was no point me going elsewhere in order claim it when I could just attack a nearby farm.

Perhaps better weapons for my minions, then?

That got me to thinking to where in the multi-verses I could go to get my hands on a lot weapons suitable for the minions. They didn't really have the digits for firearms, but maybe with practice they could find a way to learn how to fire a gun. Actually hitting would a whole different set of problems.

At this point I'd started to wander around the room and my legs had taken me to the Tower Heart which began to show moving pictures. This caught my eye and I watched with amazement at what I saw.

It was like some sort of massive outdoor market but not one you'd find anywhere on Earth, or at least not my version of Earth, it was full of humans, what I guessed to be aliens as well creatures I'd thought to be fictional.

"I didn't know the Tower Heart could be used to scry" I said out loud.

Scrying was a magical art that allowed one to spy on far off places or to find missing people and objects. It seemed that the Tower Heart was not only able to allow me to scry it also seemed to be able to read by desires, and show me I wanted to see.

Gnarl approached me and said "The Tower Heart is a very wondrous artefact, Sire. It can show you anything you wish to see".

Well if I ever wanted to perv on famous and hot female celebrities I'd keep that in mind, but for now I wanted to see more of this great market place and so the Heart showed it to me.

I could see creatures and people exchanging items and sometimes gold was used, which was good because I could get my hands on gold rather easily. The stuff seemed to be lying just waiting for me to loot it. I also noticed that the beings in the marketplace were trading people for goods and wealth as well. Also most of the items didn't look very friendly, there were lots of weapons and nasty things in cages. Clearly this was a place nice people shopped at.

This was further proven when I saw what seemed to be demons of the horned and winged rarity walking around. Even worse than that some of the slavers seemed to be drow. Anywhere you found slave selling drow would not be a nice place.

Thankfully for me I was the Overlord and therefore quite evil, so I should fit right in.

"Okay Gnarl" I said having made up my mind "that's where I want to go".

My tone of voice made it clear that I would not change my mind in this matter, so Gnarl informed the minion diggers, who would somehow tunnel into another universe, that they were to make a gate appear in the place I the Overlord was currently viewing. Gnarl then informed me that the gate would take a day or two build assuming that I gathered enough life force for the needed minions.

Once that was done I started to feel a bit tired as it had been a busy day, even if it was only half done. All I really wanted to do was to rest but as the old say going 'there's no rest for the wicked' Gnarl soon informed me that the minions would need a crane to clear out the debris which was blocking the way to the private quarters. So unless I wanted to sleep on the floor I needed to get my hands on a crane.

**Spree. Town's Gate.**

Upon reaching the gates, I got to hear heard one the not so bright gate guards, yell out.

"Halflings approaching! Get ready!"

Another guard who was as poorly armed as the first stood beside him holding a pitchfork as it was a spear. I'd be willing to bet that he really wished that he had a spear but in the right hands a pitchfork could do a lot of damage so I wouldn't underestimate these peasants.

"Hang on! Those aint Halflings! Look at the one with the helmet!".

It wasn't as if the minions and I were that far away, they should have been able to see that the little demons were not Halflings, and that I was clearly not one. Although given that half of the minions I summoned were still wearing bits of pumpkin armour the guard's confusion was somewhat understandable.

"Hmmm, could be two halflings holding up some armor. Yeah, I bet that's it! I don't trust those sneaky little wossnames."

Of all the stupid...

I took off my helmet and let the two 'guards' see that I was as human as they were, at least in appearance as in mental capacity I might as well be a different species.

Do I look like a Ho... A Halfling to you".

The two geniuses took some to debate the issue before one of them gave me an answer.

"Well, prove that your not and free our people from the camps down the road".

Before I give the piss poor excuses for humanity the middle finger Gnarl spoke once more into my helmet.

"Sire, Spree wouldn't have a crane, but I bet there's one at the halfling slave camp."

"Fine," I replied before turning and going as instructed 'down the road'

Soon I came across a group of five halflings preparing an ambush in a patch of dried up wheat. Either these guys were dumber that the men protecting Spree, which was quite possibly true, or they didn't know what had happen to the last lot who'd tried this trick.

"Overlord Uses Fireball Attack... It's Super Effective!".

My timing was perfect, the fire spread just as I said 'Super Effective' and then the screaming started. Oh I'd never get tried of setting those buggers a lit, even if I didn't enjoy the smell as much as Gnarl did.

As was their job the minions looked the bodies, and collected the lifeforce but the horrid little pests only had a few gold and silver coins on them.

Those coins found a new home in my expandable bag which was pretty standard equipment for adventurers so I didn't question how or why my armour had one tucked away within it.

The minions who didn't already have a sword also now had one. This group of minions was larger than the last as bringing the Tower Heart back to the Dark Tower somehow granted me the ability to control more minions. At some point I'd try and find out how that worked but that wouldn't be today.

With me directing them onwards the minions continued on down the road before reaching the first Halfing slave camp, which was where the villagers were guarded by Halfling swordsmen and some other half sized pests who liked to throw stones.

I half expected a troll to appear, but no such creature made its presence known, so I had my sword using minions attack the enemy with swords, which was a very basic for a battle tatice but it worked, while I sent some fireballs at the stone throwing vandals. The fireball spell must of grown in proper with the return of the Tower Heart as the Halflings roasted with out the aid of flammable vegetation.

Once the battle was done and the orbs of life force were gathered I freed the slaves, if only to gain easy entrance to Spree and then looted the camp for all it was worth. Any crate that wasn't smashed was filled with surplus weapons, any food the little greedy gits had, and finally a few small chests full of valuables which must have been looted from Spree. I had no intention of returning their pitiful treasures as I would soon need them.

Then came the very long and boring walk back to the Tower Heart. It would be a while yet, at least until tomorrow, until the minion diggers could start creating new gates so I was going to spend most of the afternoon just wandering the countryside. At least with the loot it was worth the effort but I would need a lot more in order to refurbish the tower. Thankfully the Halflings would have a lot of nice stuff in their homes.

I couldn't return to Spree just yet as I still needed a crane and to find that I needed to find the main Halfling slave camp. Which if I remembered right was somewhere close by. But the problem I was having now was that in real life the world is a lot bigger and there are often lots of directions one can travel in.

In short I quickly got lost.

Finally, after what felt like miles worth of walking, I reached a large clearing and found the rest of the enslaved villagers, but unlike the others, the smaller camp this was one was guarded by a large and very fat troll.

Acting quickly I used my mental control of the minions to send them around the camp in a sweeping motion that caused minions to break off from the group in order to fight the guards. This left me with no spare minions but that didn't mean that I only had one target to deal with.

I sent a fireball at the troll aiming for its flabby, ugly face and almost child like face, which startled the creature and set what passed for its eyebrows on fire. Making good use of the short lived distraction, because that was all it was, I went into my first proper fight. With all my enhanced Overlord strength, further boosted by the magical armour I wore, I struck at the monster but my blow was absorbed by the creature's rolls of fat.

With a dismissive gesture the troll batted me aside and I went down, hard. But before the smelly beast could squash me like a bug the minions rallied, and then jumped on the troll's sweaty back.

The Browns were impressive fighters and had already dealt with the Halflings I had sent them after. What happened next was equally impressive.

They weren't Greens so a few of Browns were shaken off but most managed to stay on the monster and started to stab with their swords. Even those knocked off the troll got up and attacked its legs. The air was filled with minions shouting some sort of warcry and the beast's roars of pain, as the Browns slowly but surely took the creature down. My fireball had blinded the troll so its own attempts to smush the minions with its hairy feat met with little success.

In the end I only lost three minions which was a testament to just how powerful the little demons were.

"Well that would be one for the trophy room, Dark One" commented Gnarl "if there was enough left of it to be stuffed".

I didn't make any reply as I was too busy trying not throw up in my helmet, the smell was truly awful. In fact it was bad that some of the captured citizens of Spree refused to be rescued from their cages until after the minions moved the body.

Still it wasn't all bad, we now had the crane. With that the way to my bedroom could now be cleared. Even better than that there was more loot here and the troll had left quite a bit of life force behind, along with the orbs left by the now head Halflings I had enough life force to restore my lost minions and some extra for new minions.

Best of all I found one of the looted Tower Objects, it was a Minion Totem which would allow me to control more minions.

**The Dark Tower. The Throne Room.**

By the next day. I was back in the throne room watching as the minions worked tirelessly to repair the damage the so called heroes had done to my new home. Mostly the work was going so well because my minions had salvaged everything at the two camps not nailed down, and them everything else once they had figured out that hammers could be used to remove nails.

Taking every tool they could find they'd gained pickaxes, wood chopping axes, hammers, shovels, saws and even a few spanners. With these tools, and the lumber also taken from the main camp, the work on the tower was far ahead of schedule.

As was his custom Gnarl stood next to me as I sat on the throne, so that he could better advise me on all matters that an Overlord had to deal with.

"Now we have the Crane, we can now start to rebuild your Tower, Great One" the Minion Master reported "We have also managed to open up the dungeons, so you can now imprison your enemies, and torture them at your pleasure".

Personally I would prefer prisoners who enjoyed the kinkier side of BDSM, but since I didn't have the Evil Presence Spell, yet, I might have to resort to cruder forms of persuasion.

"We can worry about getting me some pets later" I told the devoted servant of darkness "today I'm going after Melvin Underbelly, oh and I'll make the people of Spree bow to me they should do easily once they see how I have defeated their enemies".

"It's so good to see that your settling into your new role in life so quickly, Master" said Gnarl with approval.

Yes, I'd noticed that too. I'd spent some time wondering if I was now so evil because I was the Overlord or if becoming the Overlord was just letting me express my evilness in a way 21st century Earth never would of allowed me to.

Given that gaining the title of Overlord came with physical enhancements, as well as at least a little inbuilt combat skill, it was plausible that receiving the title also had a psychological effect on a person along with the physiological ones. But if it worked that way I found I just didn't care.

"Right I'm off to Spree" I declared once I had my armour and my axe.

A little bloodshed would clear my mind of these unneeded thoughts, and I needed to kill sometime until I got to explore that strange marketplace.

The trip to Spree was uneventful, right up until I got to the front gates. A group of Halflings appeared and tried to ambush, I assumed that they knew no other tactic, but this time they didn't hide in easy burnt planets so I had to fight them myself. That turned out to be rather anti-climatic as while I wasn't quite up to taking on a fully grown troll, I could deal with a few evil Hobbits.

I now had ten minions under my command.

Annoyingly this caused to the 'guards' to close the gates again, but once they recognised me as I allowed entrance.

As players of the came would expect the peaceful village of Spree agreed to come under my 'protection' as long as I recovered their food. Which made sense because they starved to death then I couldn't rule them and they wouldn't be able to pay me tribute.

To further incite me into helping them they had presented me a mana pillar, which had been left behind by one of the heroes, the pillar would further enhanced the power of my spells. Granted I only had the once spell but a stronger fireball was well worth having.

So with that in mind my force of ten minions, which thanks to this latest attack all had a sword and at least a little armour bits of armour, thankfully no pumpkin armour and I made my way to the Halfling's homes.

**Mellow Hills. Halflings Village.**

"Ah it looks like their having a party, Sire" Gnarl as he viewed what I could see with my helmet via his own scrying crystal "please ruin for them, Master".

I noticed that Gnarl was using titles more often now, perhaps it was his way of showing approval.

Since the Halflings had noticed my presence yet, and had no sentries posted I got all the time I needed to view the situation. The party was in full swing and the greedy, fat Hobbits were already drunk by the looks of things. Which was good for me as it would them easier to slaughter.

I also spotted a Minion Totem, the idiot half sized people had it just lying there in the open. It was like they wanted to be attacked!

Already I had looted three homes and had everything that could be carried from them taken through the mew Tower Gate that was just outside the Halfling settlement. I needed the loot because I got the impression that anything worth buying from the weird marketplace would cost a lot, and so I needed a lot to both trade and to furnish my Dark Tower.

Well having the new gate so close at hand was useful I couldn't really complain about having to have had to keep using the first one as it had led to me finding one of those health pillars. Next time I met a troll I wasn't going to get knocked down so easily.

Now having a good lay of the land I saw no reason to delay the attack. With my minions forging the path ahead we smashed through the white picket fence that was the only barrier in our path. Then, as Gnarl hoped we would, we crashed the party.

"Your minions seem bewitched..." Gnarl said, his tone getting lighter as he spoke "It does have a haunting beauty to it..."

I cursed myself for forgetting that the fiddler at the party could mesmerise my minions. Thankfully the Halfings were to full of food and beer to take any advantage of this situation.

"Perhaps we should stay a while... revel in the melody... Oh... my feet master! I can't stop them... Oh, I'm dancing, I'm actually dancing. Quick do something sire!" Gnarl cried out.

And do something I did. A well aimed fireball flew across the yard and the musician was knocked to the ground as his instrument exploded. Judging by the fiddler's scream as he feel he'd been badly wounded by the attack.

"So often the great die before their time. Oh well, his music will live on in our hearts!" Gnarl said once the music had stopped.

At once the minions stopped dancing, and it was just in time to prevent the now more organised Halflings from taking advantage of the situation. The Browns began to attack everyone in sight while their leader Melvin Underbelly made good his escape.

"Looks like Melvin is making a run for it... well a waddle for it" Gnarl informed needlessly.

After killing the remaining halflings, I noticed that Melvin had made it back inside his home and had locked the door, but the barrier couldn't stand up to a force of ten minions and the way was soon cleared.

The inside of the Halfings main building was something of a maze, so many of the rooms looked alike that I often got turned around while all the time coming under attack by halflings.

Thankfully I had more than enough life force to replace the lost minions, and later I would go down to the graveyard, which was run by a old minion called Mortis, and I would restore the strongest of the lost minions to life. But that would have to wait until Melvin Underbelly was dead.

I was lucky enough to find a minion totem, which had been used as decoration, inside one of the rooms. This increased my horde size so that I could command fifteen minions when in the field. That many minions in once place made the fights much easier and my forces were able to demolish entire rooms, which made it clear to me what rooms I had already hit and helped me to avoid getting turned around.

Eventually I came across Melvin who as I had expected was now ready for the boss fight, the halfling was bigger than even me, which was saying something given that humans are bigger than halfings and I was also wearing armour which greatly increased my bulk.

The fat, disgusting creature that the hero Melvin had become thanks to being introduced to the sin of greed, rolled itself at me but as I'd know this would happen my minions and I were able to avoid the attack.

Melvin slammed into the wall and became vulnerable to attack, so I sent the minions into attack but unlike with the troll not enough of the minions were able hold on, likely due to all the grease, and once Melvin was rolling around once more several minions were flattened until they became horrible little pizzas.

Moving faster than I had right to while wearing so much armour I avoid another attack and sent a weak fireball at Melvin. Amazingly the grease covering the boss halfing's body didn't ignite, as hoped, but the attack still hurt the overgrown halfing enough that he didn't start a new role until the minions had done some major harm to him.

After a few more rolls I'd lost more than ten minions, but Melvin was in really bad shape. When he next crashed into the wall, and left a dent, I went in with my axe and ended the tub of lard's life.

Unfortunately for me Melvin seemed to all belly and when my axe chopped the halfling's head off a fountain of hot fat appeared bathing myself and the room.

For once I was really glad that Gnarl had insisted that I wear the helmet at all times. If I hadn't been Melvin's death would have been a much more horrific an experience for me.

The minions on the hand seemed to enjoy the speculator display of grossness, they ran under the fat and one of them even recovered Melvin's golden crown and fork.

Since I wanted to badly leave that room my minions and I soon did and we came across the supplies that had been taken from Spree. Returning said supplies via the Tower Gate that had by now been installed Spree would earn me the town's loyalty. I decided to keep my end of the bargain as starving people would make poor subjects and if the town paid tribute to me I'd get more out of it in the long run than I would by keeping the food for myself.

Once that issue was dealt with it was just a matter of finding the Reds. I knew that they were in the kitchens, but the problem was that I didn't know where the kitchens were. In the end I found them by following the smell of cooking food, or rather the minions tracked the scent as they had a better sense of smell that I did.

Freeing the Reds proved to be rather simple. I just had to deal with a few larger than normal Halflings that were rather lethal with the bread knives, but compared to a fully armed and armoured Overlord they weren't that dangerous. They soon ran out of things to throw at me.

The Reds led to me their Hive and they carried it back to the Tower Gate, where I summoned up more Browns so that I fully ransack this place. Everything was taken, from the curtains to the carpets, and everything in between. Including all of the treasure that Melvin had been hoarding.

By the time my minions had finished looting Melvin's home there was nothing of any value left, and if I was wrong there still wouldn't be anything left worth taking as my Reds were rather angry about being imprisoned and expressed this displeasure by setting the Halfling's homes ablaze before we left.

When those who had fled this place finally returned they would find nothing left and be forced to move on since it was very unlikely that the humans they had been terrorising until now would show them any charity. But their fates were unimportant to me.

**The Dark Tower. Throne Room. **

Even with the minions having been greatly restored in number, even after I'd sacrificed many of them in order to bring the strongest minions back to life, the sheer amount of work needing to be done meant that the gate I wanted opened to that strange marketplace was not yet done. Still I was pleased with the progress the little monsters had made when it came to rebuilding and refurbishing the Dark Tower.

Bringing Spree into my Dark Domain had proved a boon as the villagers had informed me as to where I could find the Steel Smelter, to further encourage their usefulness I had allowed the small town to skip its first month's tribute but only because looting the Halfing settlement had proved so profitable.

This recovery meant that I had the means to produce new armour and weapons for myself, but I'd decided to wait until I had more life force before producing anything new. Plus I didn't have enough Red minions to make any cool flame weapons.

Returning the Red minions to their rightful home had also proved beneficial as it meant that I could eat cooked food again, eating raw meat was fine for minions as they had the stomachs for it but I liked my lamb cooked. I would have been able to survive for a while on the cold food stuffs looted from Melvin Underbelly's home, but it was good to get a hot meal.

My throne had now been repaired, it had need padding and everything, so this meant that I didn't have to either wear my armour all the time or sit upon bare, cold stone.

"Sire" greeted Gnarl as he took his place by the side of the throne.

The old minions seemed to be vibrating a little, I could tell that he had something which he wanted to tell me so I asked.

"What is is Gnarl?"

"It would seem that the town of Spree has set up a sacrifice of sorts," Gnarl explained, answering my question.

This rang a few bells, so I went over to the Tower Heart and used it to find out what was going on.

"Oh and she's not too bad on the eyes".

"Ah an attempt to butter me up" I said as I looked upon the two men who were currently tying some poor woman up.

If I had to guess this might because I had allowed the people of Spree to miss a month's tribute in exchange for giving me information which led to recovering the Steel Smelter. The idiots must think that if they gave me a gift that I would allow to not pay their tribute for another month. This couldn't be allowed. I would not let them think I could be brought off so easily.

**Golden Meadows. The Tower Gate.**

Stepping through the Tower Portal I soon appeared at the Tower Gate where the offering to me was waiting. My appearance frightened the villagers, and they dropped to their knees.

"What is going on here?" I demanded to know, but I really need to have said that as I did know what was going on.

"Oh Dark Lord, in the hopes that you might have pity upon us poor wretches, we offer you the finest woman of our maidens!" said one of the grovelling men.

"I aint no maiden,!" the woman protested while struggling with the ropes that bound her "they don't call me Haystack-Harriet for nothing!"

After taking one look at the woman I could see why she might earn such a nickname, for starters she was as common as much and hay in her dirty blonde hair. They must of taken her while she was in the haystacks, so they couldn't of failed to realise that she wasn't a fair maiden.

"She's clearly hysterical... overcome by your magnificent visage my Lord" said the other grovelling man.

"You can stand for this, Sire" warned Gnarl "you must put your foot down and let these disgusting people that you are an Overlord not to be messed with".

We agreed on that issue,

A fireball sent the two men running and I quickly freed 'the maiden'.

"Leave here and return to your home" I told the village bicycle.

I followed her but I took the Tower Gate directly into town. The two men who I had sent packing had made such good time home that I barely bet them there.

**Spree. The Inn.**

I had actually just planned to make an example of one of the two men in front of the entire village, but that proved to be impossible as everyone ran away upon seeing me. Clearly the whole of the population had been in on the idea as they understood at once that the plan had gone horrible wrong.

"You were promised a maiden, Sire" reminded Gnarl "I suggest you take about five or maybe ten".

Ten was a bit excessive given that this tiny excuse for a town didn't exactlu have a high population even before the Halflings had started to terrorise them, and I didn't really feel like chasing down that many girls anyway as it would involve lots of running and I was rather lazy by nature.

"I'll take five" I decided out loud so that Gnarl could hear me "that should be enough to keep the tower clean.

And also to keep my bed warm, at least until I could my hands on a Mistress I told myself.

After spending the afternoon chasing down young women, while also teaching Spree a lesson about trying to cheat me. I returned to my tower knowing that by the morning the gate to that strange marketplace would be open and I would be able to start spending some of my hard earned gold.

Well I say hard earned, it was more like hard looted.


End file.
